This news story is finally beginning to see the light of day, something I wondered whether or not it was going to happen or if Nex was going to be another victim who's death was buried in a mudslide of passive language and apathy.
I'm transgender (nonbinary), my husband is a trans man and one of my stepkids is nonbinary as well, and when I tell you this story has taken my heart and squeezed it in a vice I'm not exaggerating. I'm not going to go over the details of the case, I can't, because I can't read too much about it before a switch in my head flips to red static and I find the taste of blood in my mouth from biting down too hard to keep from screaming to wake the dead.
So I can't tell you about the details of the case. I can't tell you about Nex's family situation, I can't tell you about their life. What I can tell you about is fear. I can tell you about the fear of the other that bigots spread, gleefully dumping their poison out into the ether, confident that their message that trans people aren't human will find a willing audience amongst many and an apathetic shrug from most "good" people because after all "I don't know any trans people it doesn't affect me and besides they're a little weird and icky".
I can't tell you about Nex's last moments but I can tell you about rage. I can tell you that I and tens of thousands of other trans people are so full of rage at this latest assault on our community that we can't speak for fear of what might fly out of our lips and provide further justification for our elimination because "look at how unreasonable and violent they all are!".
I can't tell you about the legal wrangling in Owesso Oklahoma, but I can tell you about hate, both the hate that the monsters of "decency" and "morality" spread with their pernicious lies about people like me and the hate I hold for them in return. I have grown sick to death of reasoned debate over my and my family's right to exist. I see the hatred from the usual suspects, the skulkers and cheats like Chaya Riachek who spread their filth with a smirk as they cash a bloodsoaked paycheck while tittering on FOX News, and I return it tenfold. All these charlatans of calumny spew their vitriol safe in the knowledge that no consequence will ever touch them. They don't see the pain and devastation they create and wouldn't care if they did. But I see it, I mark it, and all the gods above and below willing I will answer it.
If you have trans friends, please give us space to be messy, to be angry, to say things that might make you want to flinch back from the furnace of our anger and pain. And keep in mind that not all of that anger will be reserved for the obvious targets. We remember, you see. We remember everyone who spouted off about how trans women in sports was a "reasonable concern", we remember everyone brushing off JK Rowlings transformation into a vicious monster straight from one of her own stories and how we were told we were overreacting. We remember every dead trans person who we were told either directly or by omission wasn't worth mentioning. We remember, and we do not forget, nor can we forgive.
I'm going to finish up this rambling diatribe by pasting a comment I made in one of the diaries about Nex.
To wit: